King of the Hive

Chapter 13: Hunted

Alistair led his team of six humans, including himself and Josh. Kuala had insisted on coming with them, and she kept sniffing the air, growing more and more agitated as they got closer to the ship’s landing site. When asked what was wrong, she just mumbled something about a ‘familiar scent’ and having a ‘bad feeling about this’. Alistair rubbed her head reassuringly. Finally, they reached the ship. It was in a large clearing of burnt trees, burnt to clear a space to land by the ship itself Alistair assumed, because it certainly wasn’t like that before. Kuala hissed when she saw the ship.

“No!” she shrieked. “It can’t be! Not here!” Before Alistair could get an explanation out of her, a large bolt of blue energy tore a hole in one of his men. Blurred transparent shapes whizzed past everywhere.

“They’re invisible!” Alistair cried as he futilely tried to gun one down with his Pulse Rifle. Sharp metal claws ripped through another person’s body, only visible because of the crimson blood that clung to it. With a roar, Josh managed to tear the attacker apart with a full clip of Pulse Rifle. Green blood splattered everywhere and before Alistair had a chance to study the now visible body, Kuala snatched him up and leaped into the trees. She jumped from tree to tree until there were no trees left, then ran across the ground to where the Xenomorphs lived.

“Predators!” she screeched to them all. The two-hundred or so Xenomorphs leapt to their feet and ran over to her.

“W-what’s going on?” Alistair demanded.

“Predators,” Kuala repeated unhelpfully. Then she pointed to where a figure stood. It looked vaguely like a human with long dread locks, except it had four mandibles and weird-looking eyes. Its forehead was large and bald, and green blood poured from where an Xenomorph’s tail had been driven through its chest. Alistair gasped at it, his observation complete. The body slumped to the ground as the tail blade was pulled out. “A deadly enemy that hunts our kind – and any other kind – to harvest their skulls for trophies.” Alistair gulped and nodded. “We have to warn everyone. And fast.” Kuala swung Alistair onto her back and started sprinting towards the village.

“Alright, here’s the deal people. There is an alien race out there using camouflage and advanced weaponry. We ourselves only have twelve Pulse Rifles and ten Handguns. There is only so much the Xenomorphs can do to protect us because they are at risk too. Does anyone have any suggestions, or should we charge at them and hope for the best?” Alistair asked, finishing his small speech. All of the occupants of the village’s meeting hall, the people of the village, stayed silent. Alistair sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. We need twenty-one volunteers.” A few put their hands up while the rest shuffled nervously. Not many of them actually knew how to handle a gun anyway. He ended up getting seventeen volunteers, so a couple of people wielded two pistols instead of one as he had intended. He took a deep breath. “Ready?” He got a few solemn nods. “Then let’s do this.” Xenomorphs prowled around the dark grounds. A few floodlights pierced the night air with their blades of light, but there weren’t enough to properly illuminate the entire area. Every single lifeform was gathered there, so the Predators would be attracted to that one location alone if they wanted any prey. All of the innocent people stayed in the town hall while the ‘guardians’ split up and distributed themselves to the various defensive positions around the village. A young boy from the village ran up to Alistair.

“Alistair!” They boy whispered, nervous that he would attract the attention of their enemies.

“What is it Jason?” Alistair asked, kneeling down to come face-to-face with the short adolescent.

“I got you something,” Jason explained, pressing a bulky device into his hand. “I made t myself. It may not be much but... I hope it helps.” With that, Jason scampered back to the town hall. Alistair peered at the device in his hand. It had  small screen with a couple of buttons and switches next to it on top of a small handle. Alistair turned one of the switches and the device buzzed to life. The screen was green with a white picture on it. The picture was of a 2D upside-down cone shape with three lines originating from the point to go out at three regular angles. Then those lines were intersected with lines coming from the sides of the cone. Alistair shook his head at it, then spotted a small number at the very bottom left corner of the screen. 20. Alistair frowned. Beep. A small dot appeared on the screen. The number changed to 15. Beep, beep. 10. Beep, beep, beep, beep. 5. Beep beep beep beep beep beep! 2. Alistair glanced up as he heard a soft footstep. Kuala stood over him, cocking her head at him.

“What’s that?” she inquired.

“A motion tracker,” Alistair realised. The device crackled so Alistair looked at it. He noticed three quarters of a circle winding around the back of the point of the cone, and that part of a circle was split into three parts, making four in total. North, East, South, West. The one to the left of the cone was flashing white, so Alistair turned himself until a dot appeared in front of him. He was now watching an Xenomorph walk past to patrol a different area. Alistair smiled. “That boy is wasting his time here,” he commented.

“Yes, Jason does have some talent... like another young man I know.” Alistair chuckled and kissed Kuala’s cheek. The motion tracker crackled again. Alistair rolled his eyes and slipped his arm around Kuala’s large shoulders. Then there was a scream, like a knife through warm butter it sliced through the calm and quiet atmosphere. Alistair and Kuala shared a look before sprinting over to where it had originated. The night was illuminated in flashes as men fired their guns at targets they couldn’t see.

“It’s going to be impossible to see them when it’s night! It was hard enough during the day!” Alistair protested.

“Not impossible,” Kuala corrected him, nudging the hand holding the motion tracker. Alistair hastily brought it up in front of him and matched the dots with his friends until there was one dot that didn’t fit in. Kuala snarled and pounced on the dot, revealing a Predator once she had ripped it to pieces, damaging the cloaking device and rendering the alien visible. Alistair immediately ran into the town hall.

“Jason!” he yelled.